Solstice Song
by Neftzer
Summary: Cathain and Conchobar meet, and part, and meet again.


_Witchblade_ pre-series  
Rated "B" for Gabriel Bowman, may include some arcane syntax

**_Solstice Song_**

**Canto the First**

I. 

And so it was, that at the eleventh Solstice in the eleventh year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that Conchobar, the King, did dream a dream, and upon waking did cry aloud for an audience with his courtiers, his mystics, and his sage men, charging these to divine the meaning from this, his dream.   
All but MacIain, the King's trusted seer-knight, spoke the same empty words, saying, "O, King, may you live forever, this dream you speak of is nothing more than smoke, and there is no prophecy in it."   
But strong MacIain stood alone, and spoke his own divination of the dream. "No, my King, may you live forever. You must the counsel of the witch warrior of the Western Hills seek. With her right hand will she show you the meaning of this dream, and to you teach the mystery in it, that you might know its prophecy." 

II. 

And so it was, that on the eleventh Solstice in the eleventh year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that the King did send a retinue bearing his royal standard to meet the witch warrior, and compel her in all haste to come to the city and learn him the meaning of his dream.   
For it was known at that time that strong, unmannish magicks did much come to pass in the Western Mountains, and it was rumored among the people of the Western Mountains that the witch warrior, called Cathain, did command such magicks with her right hand, on which she wore the llan an cailleach, the Witch's Glove. 

III. 

And so it was, that on the eleventh Solstice in the eleventh year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that the witch warrior Cathain did come to the King, and did place her right hand in his right hand, and that he did require of her to know the translation of his dream.   
It came to pass that night at the King's bidding, that his courtiers, his mystics, and his sage men were sent out from him, as was MacIain, and he did to bed with the witch warrior. And that, at dawn, the two did call to one another, loudly, so that all the royal house did hear, having, in their congress twinned the dream, and in so doing, divined its meaning. 

IV. 

And so it was, that on the eleventh Solstice in the eleventh year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that it was made known that the King had dreamed a vision of death.   
For in his dream he had sacrificed his crown to gain the Witch's Glove, and the witch woman Cathain had abandoned her right hand's power to take back his crown.   
And Conchobar, the King, who was yet early in his years, did banish the witch warrior to the Western Mountains, lest she return to him and tempt him from his kingdom, as the dream had prophesied.   
And for many years it remained so, the warrior witch kept to her mountains, and the King did reign. (O, King, live forever.) 

**Canto the Second**

I. 

And it was so, that eleven years hence, in the twenty-second year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that Conchobar, the King, was set upon by a great enemy, powerful and cruel, and that at the enemy's approach the King was very wroth.   
And the King, and all his court were turned out of the King's city by their great enemy, and did retreat to the Western Mountains, and came to find themselves at the stronghold of the shunned witch warrior.   
And there, the King did offer amends for the banishment of the one called Cathain, and did sing songs and speak verse in praise of her and the Witch's Glove. And the heart of Cathain did soften toward Conchobar the Exiled.   
And the warrior witch did again share the bed of the King, and again tutored him and his warriors in the ways of the blade and of the axe. And as a mighty group, empowered by the unmannish magicks of the llan an cailleach, they did set out from the Western Mountains to war with the King's foe. 

II. 

And it was so, that in the twenty-second year of the reign of the King (O, King, live forever), that Cathain, the witch warrior, wearer of the llan an cailleach, did ride at the right of Conchobar, the King, and did sit in the council of war, and did speak words as bold and wise as those of MacIain, the King's seer-knight, and did treat with the King's councilors and prophesy with the King's sage men.   
And it was in the twenty-second year of the reign of the King, on the twenty-second Solstice of Conchobar, son of Cor, son of Cor the Just, that the King was captured by his enemy. 

III. 

And it was in the twenty-second year of the reign of the King, on the twenty-second Solstice of Conchobar, son of Cor, that the witch warrior Cathain did petition to the King's foe to free the King (O, King, live forever).   
And the King's foe, the great evildoer in the land that had driven the King from the King's city into the Western Mountains, did condescend to make peace with the King's witch woman, Cathain of the right hand. And the King's foe did pledge that if Cathain of the right hand did offer the Witch's Glove as the King's life price, the King would be freed, and the King's foe would leave the land of Conchobar, and never return, but only should he have the Witch's Glove. 

IV. 

And it was on the twenty-second Solstice of Conchobar, son of Cor, son of Cor the Just, in the twenty-second year of his reign, that the witch warrior, Cathain of the right hand, did agree to abandon the unmannish magicks of the llan an cailleach in exchange for the life of the King. (O, King, may you live forever.)   
But the King's foe did break with his word, and took not only the Witch's Glove, but also the King's life, returning Conchobar the King to the witch warrior's embrace in the fullness of time meet only for the King to find and travel his death-path.   
And the witch warrior, ungloved and unmagicked, did leave the King's tent as the King walked his death-path, and served a challenge to the King's murderer. 

V. 

And it was on the twenty-second Solstice of Conchobar, the King, in the twenty-second year of his reign, that in answer to the witch warrior's challenge, the King's foe did deal a deathblow to the King's witch Cathain, and that she returned to the tent of Conchobar to share the King's death-path.   
And so it was on the twenty-second Solstice, in the twenty-second year of the King's reign (O, King, live forever), that Conchobar the King, son of Cor, son of Cor the Just, and his witch woman, the warrior Cathain of the right hand, wearer of the Witch's Glove, the llan an cailleach, did walk the death-path as one spirit, and that, as one spirit both did die on the twenty-second Solstice, in the twenty-second year of the reign of Conchobar the Exiled. (O, King, live forever!) 

VI. 

And the translation of the dream was then made clear, as in the Death Hymn of MacIain, Conchobar the King's seer-knight. "For the Solstice is birth, and the Solstice is death, and the crown is the King's life (O, King, live forever!), as the glove is the witch's, and he will give his crown for her glove, and she her glove for his crown, and they shall walk the death-path as one, and they shall live to sacrifice thus without end, until the time shall come in which all things of seers and mystics are ended, and the Witch's Glove is sated and the Glove's foe is subdued. (O, King, live forever!)" 

VII. 

And it was so, that on every eleventh Solstice since the death of the King, Conchobar son of Cor, son of Cor the Just (O, King, live forever!), that the one spirit of the King and his witch woman Cathain is celebrated; for there is no greater gift than to surrender all in the service of another, and no stronger bond among Eire's children than to take another's battles as one's own.   
_O, King, live always.  
Cathain, protect us even now._

. 

. 

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Witchblade_ or the rights to its characters. Warner Bros. and Top Cow hold that high honor. I'm not making a penny off this. 

* * *

by: Neftzer 2002  
_Feedback Appreciated!_   
More Neftzer fiction here and at http://www.royaltoby.com/shack 


End file.
